


Living So Dangerous

by DarkNymfa



Series: Phic Phight 2020 [11]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Misunderstandings, One Shot, Phic Phight, Phic phight 2020, Serious Injuries, Swearing, what's a little life-threatening injury among friends amirite?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-30
Updated: 2020-04-30
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:02:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23931985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkNymfa/pseuds/DarkNymfa
Summary: Phantom had tried to kill her. It was undeniable. Now she just had to end him before he could finish the job.
Series: Phic Phight 2020 [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1685770
Comments: 26
Kudos: 275
Collections: Phic Phight!





	Living So Dangerous

**Author's Note:**

  * For [The_Lord_of_Chaos](https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Lord_of_Chaos/gifts).



> Last one for this year, folks! Ending on a nice painful note, but as usual, a happy ending. :) Also as a head's-up, I'm kind of losing interest in writing DP fanfic, so I'll write the last two chapter for Absurdism and then... take a break, I guess? Might write fanfic for another fandom, might not. We'll see what happens!
> 
> Prompt by The_Lord_Of_Chaos: "Val thought Danny tried to kill her, when Technus was possessing her suit. After a bitter and brutal fight, they actually get a chance to hash some things out."

Valerie’s new suit buzzed angrily in the back of her head. Like a rush of static, like the clicking of tiny plates of metal, like the fury she’d been holding in her chest since Phantom first ruined her life.

It was… bizarre. She wasn’t sure where she got it from. It was definitely no normal tech, but… but not using it was no option. Leaving the town in Phantom’s hands? Absolutely not.

Humming. An internal alarm. Another ghost near Casper High.

She sighed, raising her hand. Asked if she could please leave to go to the toilet. Her feet carried her outside, to a hidden nook, before she knew it.

Valerie clicked her heels together, remembered that this suit didn’t do that, and then startled when it did it anyway. It was… controlled by her thoughts, possibly. That was her running theory, anyway.

Metal pooled from… somewhere. Someplace she didn’t want to think about. It coated her, shifting into sturdy plates of black and red.

She called for her hoverboard, mentally, and watched more of the liquid metal pour of the soles of her feet. It formed something _like_ her old hoverboard, but not quite, split almost entirely in two huge prongs.

Her hands felt out the helmet, so different from the soft mask she’d worn before. It was hard to tell that she was really wearing it; her vision was almost unhindered. She had spent quite some time in front of the mirror, carefully running over the new suit. Checking the inventory, checking the strongest and weakest parts. Checking that the helmet really _did_ hide her face.

Valerie Gray was no fool. Wherever this suit had come from, she didn’t trust it.

Still, there was a ghost out there. And only one ghost hunter she trusted to deal with it.

The hoverboard lifted off of the ground before she’d even finished the thought. Thankfully, the ghost was easy enough to spot.

Both of them were.

One was some sort of animal ghost, something cat-like but with a reptilian tail. It ran over the street, claws tearing up the asphalt, people screaming and forced to jump out of its way.

Behind it was Phantom, because _of course_. The ghost was chasing the cat, barely catching up on it.

And Valerie knew that he could go _far_ faster than that cat was going.

She could feel her heart pounding, the rush of blood in her ears. How _dare_ that ghost. After he’d ruined her life, after that violent attempt at _murdering_ her. Still he pretended to be a hero?

Wind whistled past her, careening past the sharp edges of her suit. She pressed lower against her hoverboard. Diving, diving, _diving_.

The board flattened out just above the street, losing none of its momentum. In front of her, the two ghosts took a bend. Shit.

A twist so sharp it led her into a spiral—losing her precious speed—carried her around the bend, too. Phantom had put on a burst of speed, finally catching up to the other ghost. He hit it with a blast of green, the cat stumbling into the street, down.

Valerie hit the brakes, stopping on one side of the cat. Phantom hovered on the other, his Thermos already in his hands.

“Phantom!” she snapped at him.

“One moment!” he yelled back, like they were here just to have some sort of casual conversation. He uncapped the Thermos, quickly snapping up the other ghost. “Okay, got it. What’s up?”

What’s up? _What’s up?_

She felt her anger roil, and her suit responded in kind. The plates on her shoulder shifted, clicking apart to reveal a gun. Aimed straight at Phantom, of course.

“Woah, hold on,” the ghost stammered, clicking the Thermos onto his belt with one hand and raising the other. “Come on, Red, there’s no need for that.”

“No need for it?” She clenched her hands, the edges of the metal pressing into her flesh despite the armor. “No _need_ for it?! Says the ghost who tried to _kill_ me!”

“Kill you?” he echoed, blankly, before yelping and ducking just under a shot of pink ectoplasm. “Red, I never—”

“I’m not listening to your lies for another _second_.” She fired another shot at him, Phantom barely evading it by dodging upwards. “Get back here!”

“No thanks!” Phantom sped higher, grimacing when he saw her following him. “Can we do this some other time? I kind of have something to get back to!”

She growled wordlessly. The next shot hit him in the arm.

Phantom yelped, dropping a few feet before catching his flight again. “Red! Can’t we just talk about this?”

“I know what I saw!” She exchanged her gun for a bigger one, a more powerful one. It felt comfortably heavy in her hands, the buzz of it charging resounding in her chest. “And I’m not letting my guard down just so you can finish what you started!”

“I didn’t—” He swore, a shield barely blocking the shot. “ _Valerie_!”

“How do you know my name, Phantom?” Her heartbeat sped up even further. She’s pretty sure he had used her name in the past, but it never really stood out to her.

But he tried to kill her, mere days ago. He knew who she was outside the suit, and he was prepared to kill her. What was stopping him from going after her father to lure her out? From attacking her in a situation where she can’t suit up?

He shielded another blast. “What’s gotten into you?” he yelled over the sound of the ectoplasm splattering apart. “Why are you so angry today?”

“You tried to _kill_ me!” she snapped back, trying to command the panels on her gauntlets to open for more guns to shoot at him. “And you’re pretending it never happened!”

“What are _talking_ about?” he dropped his shield, trying to give her some kind of earnest look, eyes big and watery. “Valerie, I never even wanted you _hurt_!”

“Tell that to my old suit and the _hole_ you punched in its _chest_!” She fired all three guns, just out of sync from each other. Phantom dodged the ecto-gun, but hadn’t seen the two guns on her gauntlets.

He dropped another few feet, his jumpsuit seared on the arm and leg, exposing reddened skin. “You weren’t even _in_ that!”

“Guess I got _lucky_.” The smaller guns weren’t doing it; she needed the big one to really lay the hurt into Phantom. “But you won’t.”

She managed to summon the smaller cubes, now. The three of them hovered over her shoulders. Locked onto Phantom.

Fired.

The ghost dodged all three blasts again, releasing a relieved sigh.

Didn’t see the fourth blast coming.

Phantom crashed down onto the roof of a nearby building. The pained noise he produced almost sounded real.

Valerie dove after him, quickly. Didn’t want him to get away.

It didn’t seem like he had any intention of doing so, however, because Phantom was flattened onto the roof. The blast has burned off a large portion of the jumpsuit on his chest, and damaged the false skin underneath. Damaged it so badly, in fact, that green ectoplasm bubbled up from it.

Bingo.

She hovered just over the roof as Phantom pushed himself into a seated position. “Stay down, Phantom, or I’m _putting_ you down.”

“What is _wrong_ with you today?” His glow flickered brighter for a moment, swirling violently. “I didn’t even _do_ anything!”

“I’m not falling for that!” She charged another shot into the gun, felt the energy pulse throughout her entire body. “Now smile for the little birdie.”

He grunted, suddenly dropping backwards. Gone.

Fuck, he’d phased through the roof.

Valerie dragged her ghost scanner to the front of her mind again. Come on, she really needed its help right now.

Or… maybe not. Phantom hovered at the side of the building, tangible again. Pressed against the wall like she could somehow miss his glowing ass.

It was just so… so _enraging_. This stupid little ghost, and his stupid little trick, and his _stupid dumbassery._ It made her wish she could strangle him.

But she’d settle for absolutely wrecking his shit.

Her suit pulsed with energy, and it felt like a light bulb turning on in Valerie’s head. Now _there’s_ an idea.

She was in full control of the suit. Could control it mentally. And _anger…_ anger was entirely mental. So what was stopping her from pouring her anger into an ecto-blast fit to obliterate Phantom?

Valerie dove after Phantom, trying to bunch up all her anger into a little ball of fury in her chest. The ghost spotted her too soon, however, pushing off of the wall.

Another chase. No matter; his injury slowed him down. She could keep up, now.

But, _god_. Was it _infuriating_ to see him dance like that, twirling through the sky like he hadn’t done anything wrong. Like he was just having a jaunt through the city.

Her anger felt electric, red-hot and boiling. She was right on his tail.

Valerie fired.

Phantom must’ve heard the noise, somehow, because he twisted to look. A stupid mistake, but one she’d gladly take.

The enormous pink ecto-blast hit him right in the stomach. Right below where she’d already injured him.

He _screamed_ , flung into the ground with enough force to leave a crater. Didn’t dissipate, though.

She lowered herself to the ground as well, her hoverboard sliding back into her feet. Landed on the edge of the crater, stumbling a little. That blast had taken all of her anger, all of her energy.

God, she just felt tired now.

Phantom groaned, lying in his crater. His entire front was covered in ectoplasm, splattered all over his arms and legs and even his face.

She…

She didn’t feel as good as she thought she would’ve. As she _should’ve_.

This ghost tried to _kill_ her. The only reason why he hadn’t succeeded was because she’d gotten _lucky_. Because some other ghost had hijacked her suit.

So why did she feel so bad about it now? Yes, he looked like a mess, but ghosts didn’t even feel pain! All his pathetic groaning was just a _show_!

But her anger had stilled to just a little cinder. A spark with no real heat behind it.

“How are you _still_ kicking?” she grumbled, just loud enough that Phantom could hear. A quick glance confirmed that the park was empty. That, at least, was good news.

Phantom groaned, hands pressed to his torso. Stained his white gloves green with his own ectoplasm.

Not much of a victory, was it?

Valerie stepped over the edge of the crater, carefully. Slid down until she stood crouched over Phantom’s downed body. “Can’t you just give up? Or am I going to have to drive a fist through your chest like you tried with me?”

“I— I didn’t.” His voice was drawn taught with pain. It wasn’t real, Valerie knew, but it sure felt like it. “Wasn’t you.”

“Yeah, no shit.” She lowered herself even further, eyes roving over Phantom’s body. That last ecto-blast had certainly done some damage; his jumpsuit had burnt off to the point where most of his front was exposed. The skin was clearly burned, even if it bled in green instead of red. “I was lucky I wasn’t in that.”

“Knew you weren’t,” he said, voice soft and faltering. “Saw you.”

She felt her breath hitch at that. “So, what? Was it just for intimidation? Did you hope that destroying my suit would stop me from going after you?”

“No. Yes. I—” He coughed, the sound sudden and harsh. Rattled his entire body.

Phantom hissed through his teeth, eyes clenching with imagined pain. “Wanted the suit gone. Both of us safe.”

“What?” Was he… was he really pretending he was _keeping her safe_? “Ghosts would’ve come after me, whether I’m armed or not!”

“Armed or actively hunting… different.” He shifted slightly, one hand feeling out the edges of his injuries. “They wouldn’t have, anyway. I think.”

“No?” She scoffed. “Why? Because you would’ve stopped them? Big words for the ghost three seconds away from destabilizing.”

He groaned again. “Won’t,” he said, like he could just _will_ it into being. Maybe he could. Ghosts were strange things. “They’re… looking for amusement. No fun if the target won’t fight back.”

“Amusement?” she echoed, despite herself. Was that all they were, to ghosts? A fun _toy_? “Is that what _you_ are doing? Fighting others, destroying this town, destroying people’s lives, for _fun_?”

“No.” He shook his head, shifting rubble with the movement. “ _They_ do. I protect.”

“Didn’t look like protection when you buried a fist in my chest, pal.” She prodded him in the upper arm with a finger. “You gonna destabilize or do I need to hit you again?”

“It _wasn’t_ you,” he insisted. The hand he’d been moving came to a halt on his chest.

It started glowing blue.

“What are you doing?!” she snapped at him.

He flinched. The glowing didn’t stop.

“Cooling,” he hissed through his teeth, forced.

Cooling. He was _cooling_ his injuries, with her standing right over him. For fuck’s sake, what was _wrong_ with ghosts?

“You really think that _‘it wasn’t you’_ is good enough, Phantom?” It wasn’t as heated as she wanted it to be. _She_ wasn’t as heated as she wanted to be. She just felt burnt out and tired. Wanted this day to be over.

“What _else_ do you want?” His hand was moving, slowly. Left ice coated over his injuries. Finally, he opened one eye to peer at her. It was blue, now. No longer that vivid green but an equally vivid shade of blue, literally glowing.

Since when do ghosts change eye-color like that?

“I want you to just _tell me_ what the fuck you want from me! That stupid dog of yours _ruined_ my life, and then I finally got some control back by hunting ghosts, and you’re constantly in my way! You _destroyed_ my equipment, in a way that could’ve killed me if I’d been in it! And you have the nerve to tell me that you’re _keeping me safe_!”

“I _am_ , Val.” His free arm shifted, and Phantom pushed himself up slightly. He was curled up on himself, still, the icy hand pressed against his injuries. His face twisted in pain.

It didn’t feel nearly as fake as it had, before.

“Ghost hunting is _dangerous_ , Valerie. Your suit can’t protect you from everything.” He was looking at her with both eyes narrowed, now. Two slits of icy blue. “Your employer won’t care if something happens to you. He’ll just move on to the next opportunity.”

“What do _you_ know about my employer?” she snapped back, ignoring the way she felt like he’d dumped a bucket of ice over her. _She_ barely knew her employer. He was Vlad Masters, yes, but what did anyone _really_ know about the man? No one even knew he was still interested in ghosts, in ghost hunting.

Phantom snorted. “More than I’d like to. He’s not a good man. What kind of person gives ghost hunting equipment to a fourteen-year-old?”

“I— He trusted me!”

“More than he trusts any of his employees? Any of the professionals he can hire?” Phantom angled his head slightly. His eyes felt like they were staring right through her. “Or are you just a good pick because he’s got power over you? Who would ever believe you?”

“Vlad Masters is a good man!” Her anger flickered, but did not ignite again. Damn her, why hadn’t she just gone for the weaker shots, instead of burning through everything in one go! “He tries to keep us all safe!”

“He’s brought more ghosts into this town than I have, even if I count _myself_!” Phantom shifted, but stilled immediately with a hiss of pain. “Ignoring the animal ghosts that he’s made _himself_ , he’s responsible for all _kinds_ of shit. Skulker, you remember him? He’s one of Vlad’s hires.”

She hadn’t used his name. Phantom shouldn’t have known Vlad Masters was the one who’d given her the equipment.

“So just the one ghost, who seems fixated on you anyway?” The attempt felt feeble, but she pushed through anyway. “Not exactly convincing evidence, Phantom.”

“What about the ghost king? Pariah Dark, who dragged this town into the Ghost Zone?” Almost his entire front was covered in ice, now. His glow seemed weaker than it had before. “Why do you think he was here? Hunting for a priceless ghost artifact?”

A priceless ghost artifact which _Mr. Masters_ had had. Which he’d just passed onto her, because he _trusted_ her. Or because he wanted her to take the fall for him?

Phantom must’ve sensed her hesitation, because he continued, despite the wavering in his voice, despite the way he shook. “And Plasmius, the vampire ghost. You don’t see him often, but you’re feeling his impact, I can guarantee it. There might be more— I would bet that there’s more.”

“You— You don’t have any proof of this. _Can’t_ have any proof of it.” She stood up, straightened herself to her full height to loom over him. He was just a despicable ghost. He didn’t get to _do_ this.

“Yeah, because Vlad isn’t stupid enough to leave that stuff out and about.” Phantom rolled his eyes, lifting his hand off of his torso. Its blue glow faded, and in sync, his eyes shifted back to green. “You can ask some of the humans, if you don’t trust my word. All of the Fentons, bar Jack, dislike Vlad for a variety of reasons. I _know_ that Danny and Jazz know about Vlad’s connection with ghosts.”

“So you want me to let you escape, to let you live another day, just so I can follow up on those lies?” She scoffed. “Fat chance.”

“ _You_ asked for proof.” Phantom had to twist his head to stare up at her, eyes still narrowed. “Come on, what will it take to convince you? I’m _trying_ , Red. Throw me a bone!”

“I just want someone to be _honest_ with me for once!” she snapped before flinching. She hadn’t meant to say that. Well, fuck. Truck over it, Valerie! “Nothing is ever fucking _real_. It’s all false relationships and lies, through and through! And the few honest things I get to have get _ruined_ because of ghosts! Because of _you_!”

Phantom stared up at her, wide-eyed. “Valerie, I—”

“No, shut up! I’m not done!” She balled her fists. The metal plates dug into her hand through the gloves, but she didn’t care. Not anymore. “I had everything I could’ve wanted! But then that stupid dog of yours lost my dad his job, destroyed our stuff, and now we’re broke as shit! All my friends abandoned me, and I had to get a job just to help support my family! Goodbye, spare time!”

She breathed out, noisily. “But I got ghost hunting gear from some anonymous source! And yeah, it was a little sketchy, but it let me make a _difference_! I got to _help_! Even if it was hard, at least it made me feel like I was _doing_ something! And I— I made friends! Or… A friend, at least! It was nice!”

Her shoulders shook with tension. “Until I watched you plunge a fist through the chest of my suit.” She stared down at Phantom, but he’d turned his face away. She couldn’t read his expression anymore. “And that’s when I realized I couldn’t _have_ any of that anymore. Because you—and other ghosts, but mostly you—were gunning for me. Because you would _kill_ me if you got the chance.”

“Valerie—” he started, feebly, not even turning his head to face her again.

“I don’t want to hear it,” she snapped back. “I… You took away the one thing I had control over. You destroyed my suit, and now you’re telling me that the guy who gave it to me was just using me as a tool? That I’d never been in full control of what was going on?”

Her next exhale was wet. Shaky. “You really… You really can’t imagine what that’s like.”

“Valerie,” he said again. Turned those big wet eyes up to her. “God, I… I mean, obviously I can’t empathize with _all_ of that, but… You think I never went through any of that? I mean—” He laughed. It was quaky and humorless. “I _died_ , Valerie. How much else can you lose, right? And now I’m just trying to help my hometown, and what do I get as thanks?”

He waved a hand over his torso. The sprawling injury—the combined surface area of both shots—was covered entirely in ice, but that couldn’t hide the vicious green underneath. She’d really done a number on him.

“Ghost hunters are after me all the time. The town changes its mind on whether I’m _good_ or _bad_ on a whim, like everything I did before that moment didn’t matter! Like I’m not constantly trying to save _everyone_ , like I’m not doing my constant best!”

Phantom laughed again, leading it into a hacking cough. “And yeah, sometimes I mess up. Sometimes a ghost slips past, or I don’t stop them until they ravage a factory. But, fuck. Doesn’t _everybody_ screw up sometimes? Isn’t that just part of being human? Or was that supposed to leave when we die, when we become a ghost? Because, ooh boy, I think I might’ve missed that step.”

“You _are_ a mess,” she countered, but it didn’t feel as heated as she’d intended. She let herself slump down, until she sat next to him. “If this is all so terrible, why don’t you just… _leave_. You’re a ghost. Go back to the Ghost Zone, or whatever.”

“The ghosts won’t stop coming just because I’m not here, you know?” He sighed, pulling up his knees and resting his arms on them. The ice on his stomach creaked. “They’ll keep attacking, constantly. Do you know how many ghosts invade this town on a daily basis? How many people could get hurt if I’m not watching, 24/7?”

He huffed out something that was almost a laugh. “The Fentons sure don’t. I thought about it, y’know? Taking a break, at least, see how the town would fare without me. But there are so many ghost attacks that they don’t know about. That _you_ don’t know about.”

“Because you stop them before we can. So if you _did_ leave, we’d learn about all those attacks, too.”

“You’d all run yourselves ragged.” He shook his head. His hair was stiffer than usual, stained with his own ectoplasm. “Even if you and the Fentons coordinated, you would all have to deal with almost constant attacks. At all times. How many ghosts do you think attack at night, when you guys are all asleep?” He laughed, bitterly. “Trust me, you don’t want to know.”

“So why didn’t you take that break?” She turned to narrow her eyes at him, not that he could tell with the helmet. “Show us why we were wrong?”

“Because that’d hurt people.” He moved to run a hand through his hair but stopped almost immediately, grimacing at the ectoplasm on his glove. Instead he turned to unleash his big green eyes on her once more. “It’d hurt you, and it’d hurt the Fentons, and it would hurt everyone else in the town. I couldn’t… I can’t let that happen. Hurt so many people, just because a few of them sucked.”

“Sounds like catharsis to me.” She shrugged. “It’d be an eye-opener.”

“It would hurt countless people. People like you. People like my friends, like my family.”

It felt like her heart stilled in her chest.

His _family_?

“You have family living in this city?” She squinted at him. He looked like a teenager, yeah, but everyone knew ghosts didn’t age worth shit. He could be decades old, centuries old. “ _Friends_?”

Phantom froze. His glow flickered, like it kicked up a notch. “Um,” he said, and she realized that he hadn’t even meant to say that.

Wow.

What a heart to heart they were having.

“Well, that explains why you’re trying so hard.” She forced herself into a more casual sitting position, draped a hand over her leg, like she wasn’t coated head to toe in ghost-proof armor. “I bet way more people would be open to your help if they knew the real reason, Phantom.”

“I _do_ want to help everyone,” he snipped back. His glow softened again. “It’s just… Yeah, my family and my friends are the reason why I _keep_ fighting, even when everyone else shits on me. When my own family rants about how _despicable_ I am.”

“They don’t know?” She ran her eyes over him. He didn’t look… all that strange, for a ghost. Pretty human. Yeah, _she_ didn’t recognize him either, but… “How can they not?”

He shrugged. “Might be willful ignorance. Would _you_ want your kid to be me?”

“I guess that that explains why you knew it wasn’t me in the suit,” she begrudgingly allowed. “You would’ve recognized me outside it, too.”

“That, and I spent plenty of time hanging around Casper High to recognize the bigger players.” He raised his hand, but then paused to stare at it. Seemed to think better of whatever automated motion he’d been going for, because he dropped it again. “That place is a ghost magnet like you wouldn’t believe.”

Well, now there was a reminder of all the class she was accidentally skipping out on.

“Yeah,” she said instead of lingering on that thought. “I guess that that’s fair.”

They sat in silence for a moment, the ghost hunter and the ghost.

“Look, Val. Ghost hunting is rough business.” He gestured at his iced-over injury. “Trust me, I’d know. I just… didn’t want you to get involved if you didn’t have to. You’ll get hurt. You _have_ gotten hurt. But… But it was wrong of me to try and take that choice away from you. To try and take that little bit of control out of your hands.”

Now there was an apology she hadn’t expected to get. Almost destroy a ghost, and he apologizes to her? Phantom had _issues_ , man.

“Well, uh. Thanks, I guess? For the apology.” She felt awkward, now. Thrown off of her footing. “Sorry for shooting you. And… all the blaming and stuff.”

“It’s not the _worst_ injury I’ve gotten.” He shifted, hissed in pain. “But it’s up there. Yeesh, Val, how’d you even get that much punch into a single shot?”

“I, uh.” She rubbed her hand in her neck, the plates clicking against each other. “The suit kind of… works on a mental link? So I figured I would try and pour all my anger and frustration into it.”

Phantom blinked at her, stunned. “Well, damn. That’s one way of doing it.”

“It felt… relieving, in a way, I guess. But now I just feel bad about shooting you down.” She nudged his leg with her own, gently. “Can I… Is there anything I can do?”

“Honestly? Can you take patrol duty this night?” He laughed, uncertainly, playing with the hem of his gloves. “I’m gonna need some proper medical care for this one, I think.”

“Ghosts do medical care?”

He raised an unimpressed brow. “We get injured, why _wouldn’t_ we do medical care?”

“Fair enough.” She sighed, pushed herself upright. A moment of hesitation, then she held out a hand for Phantom. “Deal. You need more time for that injury?”

“I’ll manage.” He took her hand, let her pull him up. He was startlingly light, which surprised her until he remained floating in the air after she let go. “Thanks. And, uh. Thanks for the talk. I’m glad we finally got through all this shit, even if I had to get shot down for it to happen.”

She let out a startled laugh. “Yeah, well. Thank _you_ for the talk, too, even though I just shot you down.” After a beat of hesitation, she held out her hand. “Truce?”

“Truces are only temporary.” He made a face. “And I’m not too big on those anymore because everyone always breaks them by suddenly shooting me.”

Phantom held out his own hand, just away from hers. “Allies?”

“Semantics,” she grumbled, rolling her eyes. She took the hand and shook it. “Fine. Allies.”

He floated around her, slowly. “So, um. Before I leave… You said that this suit works with a mental link?”

“Yeah?” she turned to match his rotation, narrowing her eyes. “Why?”

“It’s just…” He blew out a noisy breath. “Technus made it, and I don’t trust him to make human-safe material. I know your identity is a big deal, but you might want to consider getting it checked out, just to be safe. Ectoplasm poisoning is a terrible way to die.”

Now that was an awful thing to drop on someone like that. “Phantom, what the hell! Who am I even supposed to ask for help with this?!” She balled her fists, feeling the flame of anger rear its head once more. “The only ghost experts are the Fentons, and they’ll go _crazy_ over something like this!”

“The parents, yeah, but the kids are way better with this sort of stuff.” He gestured at the Thermos on his belt—it had gotten dented at some point during their fight. “Where do you think I get this stuff?”

“Oh. I guess I just… assumed you’d stolen it, like the Fentons keep claiming.”

He rolled his eyes. “Typical. But really, ask the Fenton kids. I think the son is about your age, right? Not sure how well you know each other, but… he’s reliable. He won’t tell anyone if you don’t want him to.”

Reliable, Danny Fenton? Now that was something you didn’t hear very often. At least it would give her an opportunity to explain why she broke up with him.

“I’ll… keep it in mind,” she told Phantom. “Anyway, I promise I’ll do patrol tonight. Go take care of that injury.”

Phantom grinned down at her, saluting playfully. “Gotcha. Bye, Val!”

“Yeah. Bye, Phantom.”

She watched him leave. Confirmed that there was no one watching, and let the armor retreat back under her skin.

Maybe she _would_ take up his advice.


End file.
